A Child's faith, a Fool's hope
by Casey Toh
Summary: A child's faith and a fool's hope were what saved the universe. CoR-verse. Rating for language.


Disclaimer: Riddick, Ziza and Aereon belong to USA Films. No intentional copyright infringement is intended through their use.

**A/N:** It's kind of hard getting into a 5-year-old's mind, so bear with me, please. Shift between the first-person (Ziza and Aereon) to the third person (Riddick) is done to show the almost-impassionate distance Riddick has from "humanity."

**A Child's faith, a Fool's hope**

_**Ziza:**_

"Ziza. My name is Ziza."

I look at Mr. Riddick. He's cute, like those pictures of black panthers mama likes to show me. They're big and furry, but mama says they can bite and kill.

He looks pretty harmless to me, but papa's scared. He's scared of Mr. Riddick.

Why? I thought that Mr. Riddick had saved papa from those monsters. Papa told me so, almost every night.

Then mama pushes me away, into my room. She's scared of Mr. Riddick too.

He's just like a big, furry kitty. He looks almost like he wants to smile and play with me, but he doesn't. Maybe it's because mama and papa won't like that.

Mama puts me in my room and told me to stay there. She goes off to dry her hair. I hear papa and Mr. Riddick come up the stairs into the other room. Mama isn't around. I don't think she'll see me if I listen.

I can hide here, and I think papa won't see me. This partition with holes is good. But Mr. Riddick saw me. He wouldn't tell papa, would he?

I poked my finger through one hole in the partition and wiggled it. Mr. Riddick is a nice man. He closes the door so papa can't see me. Papa is talking about some Ne--Necromon-kers, and the world dying.

I wonder how the world can die. Papa seems so worried, but Mr. Riddick isn't. And if he isn't, I think I won't be scared too.

Someone knocks on the door and I jump. Mama saw me and made me stay in my room again, but I think I hear more people coming in. I can't hear what they say, so I will wait. Maybe Mr. Riddick will come and tell me.

The door bangs again. I jump. Mama goes to answer it and runs to tell papa and Mr. Riddick something. Mr. Riddick stays in the room but all of them carry me downstairs. I see Helion soldiers. They are good men. But why are--

"Mama!" I thought that man was going to carry me away, but he passed me to mama.

Where is Mr. Riddick? Are the soldiers going to find him and make friends, because he saved papa before? But those solders don't look too happy, and why are there gunshots from the room?

Then we all hear more gunshots. They're shooting at the sky. Are those the Necro--Necromonkers papa said will kill everyone? Are those the monsters?

Mr. Riddick comes out with papa after one solder ran away. He's scared of Mr. Riddick too. Why are the good people scared of him? He's a good man.

"Riddick!" I think 'Mr. Riddick' is too old for him. "Are you going to stop the real monsters now?" If he saved papa from monsters, I know he will save everyone too.

But he doesn't answer me: I think he's scared to answer me in front of so many people. But I know he will save everyone, because he saved papa and help me not get caught.

_**Aereon:**_

_"Do you remember anything about your home world?"_

"Anything at all," I had to urge. It was imperative that Riddick got in touch with his Furyan side.

_"Have you met any others?"_

"Others like yourself?"

I could see Riddick smirk. He thinks I'm crazy. He's a killer. No one sane wanted more killers around, and here I was, asking for more.

"Sister, they don't know what to do with one of me."

I needed to make him see. Elementals, we calculate. We had calculated the fate of the universe if the Necromongers were not stopped. We had calculated that we would need Riddick.

But, to calculate anything, values or order of some sort must exist. Riddick presented an order of total unpredictability that as soon as we had calculated an outcome, he threw another at us, until we were playing seek with the universe itself.

I wanted to probe more, but Helion Soldiers were already pounding on the door, demanding entry. The fools. I had no time. He had to stay, in this room, for the next ten minutes, or the universe will go to the Necromongers.

But I didn't know how to stay him: he was already starting to leave.

_"Or will you leave us to our fates? Just as you left _her."

Riddick stopped. I had faded into the winds that circulated this room, but I could still see. I wanted to smile, but a wind had no face.

Now, imagine the odds that chaos would be stopped by a word as simple as 'her.'

Imam asked him to wait, and he did.

Now the odds are good for us.

The Helion Soldiers came in. They challenged Riddick. The odds were not in their favor.

I could feel them move all around and through me. The Furyan is fast, much faster than I thought he could move. Perhaps he is starting to tap into his power.

When he went down, I reformed myself and went to the window, staying in the shadows. Odds were: he'd look up at me after the child spoke to him.

I heard her: "Riddick, are you going to stop the real monsters now?"

He didn't answer her.

_Answer a fool's prayer, Furyan_, I thought. _If not for the universe, then for a fool such as I am. _

The balance had tipped in our favor when he did not answer the child, but stopped to give her an answer through his soul.

He glanced up at me before putting the hood over himself and walking away.

I had to smile this time. A Furyan agreeing to something.

Now what were the odds of that?

_**Riddick:**_

Fuck. He had never asked for this fight. He had been glad to get off that frozen heap of shit known as UV-6, but was definitely not glad that it was Imam who had done it. Now, saving the universe or no, he had to clear this new bounty on his head.

That was more important that saving the universe. Fuck, it could go ghost itself for all he cared if it left him the fuck alone. Why was Imam so concerned over it?

"Had to end sometime."

And when it did, it better left him the hell alone.

Then, when he was about to leave after all that mumbo-jumbo shit about Necromongers, Elementals and shit, Imam _had_ to bring _her_ up.

Jack.

Fuck, he could've ghosted the Holy Man right there if not for the fact that he actually liked him, and that there was Ziza to think about.

So he had stayed his shiv, and stayed.

He couldn't find Aereon when he'd fought the soldiers--amateurs--but he couldn't care less. She was just an old fool to think that he'd save the universe.

The fight was over too quickly, but he heard more sounds of attack coming from the distance. He better get out of Helion Prime before more people asked him to do shit.

_Then_, Ziza had to ask him to fight the monsters. It was no question from her--the kid _believed_ that he'd save them. It was blind trust he couldn't take: she was too much like Jack.

And where was that fool--Aereon? He saw her, hiding in the shadows of the house.

What she had showed was hope in him. Fool. She trusted him, had hope in him, just like Fry had done so long ago.

Riddick threw his robe's hood over himself and grunted in self-disgust. He knew that he wouldn't back down now, that he would take down the fucking Necromongers, all because innocence had trusted him.

He shook his head as he walked away quickly. Who would've thought he'd risk his ass for such things as a child's faith, and a fool's hope?


End file.
